Case study — Iris Software Group

This will feel familiar.

The business is growing, the exit window is fixed, and the numbers need to hold up to sophisticated scrutiny. Nothing is broken. But the financial architecture to support that scrutiny doesn't exist yet.

Situation

Iris Software Group — the largest privately held software company in the UK.

A second round of PE financing from Hg Capital. A five-year window to increase valuation and deliver a profitable exit. Hg Capital needed a clear financial model - not a spreadsheet, a structured view of what was driving performance and where value could be built. That model didn't exist.

Structural shift

The gap wasn't forecasting. It was financial architecture. Without a bottom-up, driver-based model, the business couldn't tell a credible value story to the Board or its PE backer. The work wasn't to patch the numbers - it was to build the model that made the numbers trustworthy.

Outcomes

Accountancy Division

£69m t/o

Bottom-up, driver-based P&L model, then a group-wide model

Cloud Division

48 months

SaaS business case to double the division

Approval

Secured

Board and PE-backer approval; reinvestment confirmed

The cloud business case received Board and PE-backer approval. Iris secured reinvestment and prepared for larger M&A.

Insight

Growth readiness and exit readiness are the same problem. If the financial architecture can't explain the business to a sophisticated investor, it can't support a credible exit - or the next phase of growth. Building the model is how you build the case.

Andrew's contribution at the monthly ExCo meetings helped secure additional strategic investment as we continue to invest in the cloud technology.

Paul Vogel, Divisional CEO, Accountancy & Cloud — Iris Software Group

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